Denise's Needleworks

About Me

I am wife to Jeff, homeschool mom to 8, a knit and crochet teacher and totally addicted to knitting, crocheting and other fiber arts. After knitting, crocheting and sewing my own clothing from the age of 10 on, I studied textiles & clothing in college. That lead me to 25 years of custom dressmaking and alterations work, while sewing, knitting and crocheting for my growing children. I have worked in the yarn industry for the past 3 years and have been designing my own knitting patterns. Visit my web site at http://www.denisesneedleworks.com
Find me as DeniseInIowa on Ravelry.com

The entire contents and photos of this blog are copywrited as of the date of each entry by Denise Balvanz. Please do not distribute or post elsewhere without my permission.

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Wild Blue Horses and Norwegian Mittens

The Wild Blue Horses Cap is growing. You can start to make out the horses now. See the nose on the right and the mane on the left? Soon I start decreasing for the top of the cap. Then the rows get shorter and it starts to go faster.Here is where I am on the sides that have the flowers.I have also been working on some Norwegian mittens. The star mittens are from an Arnhild's Knitting Studio pattern, AH102 Child's Eight Pointed Star Mittens and Hat I made the first one to time how long it takes for me to knit them. We were trying to get an idea of how much class time would be required. So it took me about 6 hours. Some of that was while I was watching TV or tinking back to correct my mistakes. That will allow some time for students who might have the same problem or for questions and instructional time.

These will fit Carl so I will finish them for him. They are made of the very sturdy Rauma Strikkegarn. It is a really hard wearing yarn.

These plain navy mittens are also Norwegian mittens. They are the Tovede Votter (felted mittens) from the Rauma LVS-3 book. The yarn is Rauma Vamsegarn, a heavy worsted/aran weight. I made the men's size because I have long hands and I want to really felt these down for some really warm mittens. They were really fast to make on big needles. Just one more thumb to go. Great quick project. Hmmm, maybe I should make more for Christmas presents. You won't tell will you?

Friday, November 19, 2010

Wild Horses Couldn't Drag Me Away

You know that saying, right? Well, in this case the Wild Blue Horses dragged me away to knit this fabulous 5-sided cap. Here is the designer's picture of it:

And here is my progress so far. It is going pretty well, I think. The colors look different in my photo because of different lighting but they are the same colors as the original.

The design is by Cynthia Wasner of Norsk Needlework. She also has a sweater and mittens with this design and several other sets that are also quite fun. I have been trying to get all of her patterns listed on my web site but it is going a bit slowly. I did get this pattern up though and you can find it here. Watch for more of her designs to be posted soon.

The cap is made of Rauma Finullgarn and there are 3 blues and white in it. Two of the sides have horses facing to the front and the other 3 sides are flowers. It takes some flipping of the graphs as you work around but they are easy to follow and it is fun to see the design develop.

Hopefully, I can stick with this project and get it done quickly. There are lots of UFOs (Un-Finished Objects) that need my attention soon. Our temperatures are dropping and winter is in the air. I have a daughter who is in Alaska and they are already well below zero so she needs more warm woolies. Another daughter is traveling with a theatrical show around the US and Canada. She spent the past couple of years in the South US where it is warm all year so there will be some warm knits on her Christmas list too I'm sure. Lots of knitting to keep me busy!